
The Western conference which can easily be dubbed the Conference of death is once again hyper competitive as it has been for years and despite some naïve projections by some pundits, any team can come out of the west out of the eight that made it to the playoffs as it was evident with the results of the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers matchup; where the Warriors handed the favored Clippers a defeat on their home court.
It was a day of upsets with three out of the four road teams winning the games in the first games of the first round.
The Golden State Warriors defeated the Los Angeles Clippers by a score of 109 – 105.
The Brooklyn Nets and its cadre of veterans proved that experience is the best teacher, as they tutored the upstart Toronto Raptors defeating them by a score of 94 – 87 with wily old veteran in Paul Pierce providing the spark for the Nets.
The Pacers who at one time at the start of the 2014 season were favored to go all the way to the NBA Championships faltered very badly at home as they fell to the Atlanta Hawks by a score of 101 – 93 thanks to the brilliant play of Hawks Point Guard Jeff Teague who was unguardable all evening long, as well as the lackluster play of Pacer’s star Paul George and ball hogger Lance Stephenson.
The only team that held home court advantage was the Oklahoma City Thunder who defeated the Memphis Grizzlies handily by a score of 100 – 86 despite the valiant efforts of the Grizzlies who fought back after falling back several times during the game and were even down by 22 points at one point in the game .